Glissade pad

ABSTRACT

A glissade pad that is lightweight, easily portable and facilitates sliding on snow or ice is described herein. A user sits on the top or bottom surface of the pad and wraps the leg straps around his or her legs. The top and bottom surfaces can each be made of a different material to provide more or less friction as desired.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of provisional patent application No.60/482,523, filed on Jun. 24, 2003. The priority of the priorapplication is expressly claimed and its disclosure is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a flexible pad that is designed to be worn by a personas the person slides along a snow field or glacier.

Hikers and climbers often have the opportunity to travel downhill acrosssnow fields and glaciers. The travel can be considerably faster, andmore fun, if one can slide (glissade) across the surface of the snow.While this can be done while standing, it is easier if done while in asitting position. Unfortunately, this position can also result in theperson's clothing becoming wet and/or damaged. In addition, the surfacetexture of the hiker's clothing can vary, and might be either too smoothand fast, or too rough and slow for safe and effective sliding.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention addresses and overcomes these problems by providing aglissade pad that can be easily donned and removed by the user, thatattaches securely to the user, that provides different glidingcharacteristics for differing snow conditions, and that can be easilystored when not in use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The nature, principle and utility of the present invention will beclearly understood from the following detailed description when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the invention.

The drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not drawn toscale. In the drawings, the same numbers are used for the same part orportion throughout the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pad according to the invention is showngenerally at 10, and includes a first side 12, a second side 14, arecess 16, and left and right leg straps 18 and 20 attached at the frontend 22 of the pad and adjacent recess 16. Straps 18 and 20 include microhook and loop material on their respective ends for connecting thestraps around the user's legs, although any suitable fastener could beused in place of the micro hook and loop material.

The pad 10 is worn by the user who sits on the pad facing the front end22 of the pad. Once seated on the pad, the user places the left andright leg straps 18 and 20 around the right and left legs and securesthem in place with the micro hook and loop material. The recess 16includes a portion of material that permits the left and right legstraps and the adjacent portions of the front of the pad to raise alongwith the user's legs while in the sitting position.

The pad is made of a flexible polymeric material that is preferably alaminate of two materials having a different surface smoothness orfinish. In this way the pad can be reversed to provide more or lessfriction as desired for the particular snow conditions.

While the invention has been described by reference to the preferredembodiments, those of skill in the art will recognize that numerouschanges and modifications are possible without departing from the scopeof the invention.

1. A glissade pad comprising: a top generally planar surface; a bottomgenerally planar surface; a front edge; a recess in the front edge; anda first strap, wherein a first end of the first strap protrudes througha first side edge of the pad and a second end of the strap protrudesthrough the recess, wherein the glissade pad is adapted to be positionedbetween a body and a ground surface to allow the body to slide along theground surface.
 2. The glissade pad of claim 1, wherein the first end ofthe strap is adapted to be connected to the second end of the strap sothat the strap is attached to a portion of the body.
 3. The glissade padof claim 1, wherein the glissade pad further comprises a second strap.4. The glissade pad of claim 3, wherein the first strap is adapted to beconnected to a first portion of the body and the second strap is adaptedto be connected to a second portion of the body.
 5. The glissade pad ofclaim 1, wherein the top surface is formed of a first material and thebottom surface is formed of a second material, wherein the firstmaterial is different from the second material.